I interested in instances where individuals trust others based on the fact that others see all of the individual’s actions unfolding while remaining an independent agent. The third person “observer” view is considered so valuable in the sciences due to its apparent neutrality and in a way it invalidates the obviousness and directness of individuals’ first-person experiences. I wonder if the individual begins to doubt him or herself based on the fact that the other has a seemingly “supreme” position of viewing the individual from a “non-biased” external position. Of course I know it is valuable to get objective insight into our experiences, but in my research on social contagions in personal memory I have found instances where this ‘objective’ information offered by another person is taken to an extreme, where individuals seem to question their own (past) actions as they reflect with new information offered by a separate agent in the instance of a shared experience. How do we negotiate our own recollections and our own self-image with that offered by others and how can we find a balance?
To what extent do we allow others to influence our views of ourselves?
Lynda Joy is a American PhD student living in Denmark, researching sensorimotor training with multi-modal Augmented Reality technologies by using methodologies from Cognitive Neuropsychology. During her MA, she worked very closely with the Center for Subjectivity Research and studied Phenomenology and its plausible implementations in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science ("naturalized" phenomenology). Between her MA and PhD, she worked with labs in Berlin (Germany), Adelaide (Australia), Tallinn (Estonia), Zurich (Switzerland), and Paris (France). She was a keynote speaker at IEEE VR in 2016, and presented at the Augmented Reality World Expo in 2017. In her spare time, she is currently writing a novel about a virtual simulation of bardo (the stage between life and death to reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism). Her goal is to create experiences with new technologies that help people access more of the embodied subjectivity of another person/persons. Lynda wants her work to revere compassion to help allow the world to realize what a gift it is to both give and receive. Lynda is a strong believer in a better world that we collectively make by sharing a common vision, and that this vision comes through sharing our stories and our truths. That's what this blog is all about.
What is Experience? 